Strong trial results for Pfizer lung cancer drug [Video]

A Pfizer medicine has been shown to greatly reduce cancer progression and improve survival outcomes for people in the advanced stages of a form of lung cancer, results published Friday showed.

Lorlatinib, which is already approved and available under the brand name Lobrena in the United States, was tested in a clinical trial of hundreds of people with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Roughly half received lorlatinib while the rest received crizotinib, an earlier generation drug.

After five years of follow-up time, more than half of patients treated with lorlatinib did not see their cancer progress.

“We’re talking about patients with advanced metastatic disease — so this is actually a truly unprecedented finding,” Pfizer’s Despina Thomaidou told AFP.

Sixty percent of patients receiving lorlatinib, an oral one a day tablet, were alive without disease progression after five years compared to 8 percent on crizotinib.

“There …